Kim Kardashian Looks Set to Win Investor Lawsuit Over EthereumMax: Report
A judge tentatively dismissed the case on Monday.
Nov 9, 2022 at 11:38 a.m. UTC
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Reality TV star Kim Kardashian looks set to win an investor lawsuit against her and other celebrities over their endorsement of cryptocurrency ethereummax (EMAX) after a judge tentatively dismissed the case on Monday, according to a Bloomberg report.
Along with retired boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and National Basketball Association Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, Kardashian was accused in a January complaint of hyping EMAX tokens, leading to investors paying higher prices for them.
Kardashian paid $1.26 million to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission last month to settle charges relating to her promotion of EMAX. She had failed to disclose that she received $250,000 for promoting the token on social media.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald in Los Angeles said that the investors' lawyers were "trying to act like" the SEC but “haven’t chosen to view the tokens as a security” because they didn't invoke a standard securities fraud claim.
Fitzgerald said Kardashian and her fellow defendants didn't "care to label the tokens as a security for obvious reasons."
He added that he will issue a final written order in due course.
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Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.